Douglas Wolf

Gerald B. Cramer Professor of Aging Studies
Aging Studies Institute

Degree

Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 1977

Specialties

Aging and public policy, population studies, quantitative methods

Courses

Biography

Douglas Wolf is a demographer, policy analyst, program evaluator, and gerontological researcher with many years of experience studying the economic, demographic, and social aspects of aging, disability, and long-term care. Wolf''s professional experience includes an appointment as an economist in the Office of Income Security of Health, Education and Welfare (now DHHS), several years at the Urban Institute culminating in a position as Director of its Population Studies Center, and several years at Syracuse University, where he is currently Professor of Public Administration, Gerald B. Cramer Professor of Aging Studies, and Associate Director of the Maxwell School''s Center for Policy Research. Wolf also spent two years as a Research Scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria where he worked with (and was Acting Director of) its Population Program.

Research Interests

Wolf''s research areas include several topics in the well-being and life course-patterns of the older population, such as household composition and parent-child coresidence; informal care of older persons, especially the care provided by family members; and the spatial distribution of kin and migration choices. A recurring theme of Wolf''s research is the role of family and kinship patterns in shaping the choices facing older people and their immediate kin with respect to living and care arrangements. Wolf is also active in the development and application of demographic methodology, particularly in the area of active life expectancy and microsimulation.

Wolf has published over 100 articles and book chapters and has served on the editorial boards of several scholarly journals. He is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America.

Current Research Projects